Who Is Australia’s Best ISP?

For work and for play, an Internet connection is just about as essential these days as electricity or water, and that means that choosing the right Internet service provider (ISP) is vital. And that's why one of the categories in our 2010 Best Of The Year Awards is for ISPs.

A great ISP has to perform well in several categories: good-value plans that don't cost a fortune for a measly amount of data; useful extras such as unmetered content (iView FTW!) and gaming servers; and responsive customer service if things do go wrong. Which provider ticks all those boxes for you?

I have iiNet and i would have to say its the shittest internet in the world. 1.3mbps max dl and 0.20 up 100gb data a phone line that is unused for $150 a month, like seriously? Im a gamer and if im on my ps3 and someone is on facebook or anything while im on it i get a 1 bar connection and thats seriously laggy, but i would suggest not to go with iiNet.

iiNet for sure. Have been with them since they took over my account from Froggy back in the day of dial-up. Have only left them once for telstra cable but as soon as they got adsl2 up and running came crawling back and have learned my lesson not to leave them again.

They protect their client's right to privacy much so as to actually fight for it in court when others ISP's put it in the too hard basket.
And they constantly upgrade the plans data, and let you know.

Sultan, if you sign up a home phone with TPG you'll get unlimited downloads for (all up) $60 a month. If you don't make any phonecalls on the line it's effectively the same as naked but you get the beauty of unlimited downloads.

I'm moving soon so can't sign up a new contract but definitely plan to do this soon!

I would say iinet would be up there. Good value for money, decent quota and freezone content, excellent customer service, and always a leader when it comes to bringing on new technology or passing on saving to customer.

We had a terrible experience with Amcom/Amnet. It took them forever to set up our service properly, they didn't bill us for the whole time we were with them (they were supposed to bill us monthly) and when we finally cancelled out of frustration, they had the gall to ask us for the service cost in one lump sum, despite being in breach of contract.

Based on the 2 weeks it took me to fix a line fault, which in the end I managed to get done by iinet in less than 24 hours, I'd disagree with you: Telstra still blows. And un-metered ABV iView? Yes please.

@Lifehacker: Can a differentiation please be made in between fixed and naked plans in the final analysis?

I'm on a naked plan with Exetel and whilst some have had problems with customer service, on the rare occasions (maybe twice a year) where I've had to contact them, it's been adequate (with faults generally fixed either immediately or within 24hrs) - especially when you consider that I'm only paying $43/month for 10gb peak/unlimited offpeak.

I'm agreeing with what most everyone else has said. Price-wise, I think TPG is one of the best, but they lack in customer service. iiNet when I was with them always provided great customer service, but they cost a little more than TPG.

Two years ago I would have said Internode without a doubt but they seem to sliding from amazing back down towards the rest with the most noteworthy thing being the move to charge uploads.

I am with TPG now as they could offer ADSL2+ at my regional location but every month now without fail I get shaped. I know my usage hasn't changed since I was with 'node. That said the shaping is not too drastic so they are definitely up there for consideration

Internode. obviously. what other ISP is being innovative & continuously building on their international network. Its not so much about uptime (altho Internode has an awesome record on that too) its more the company is going to be around forever, whilst its pushing on Telstra to allow DSL2+ to ppl once trapped on ADSL. Wifi deployment (SA basically atm but still development).. argh, too much positive to write, fingers are giving up...

I've been with internode a couple of years now and the couple of times I have had an issue (Ok, I changed my login password & forgot to update the modem. :P ) I've gotten on to somone in Adelaide & not fobbed off to an overseas call center. Also they don't count uploads on their extreme plans & have unmetered steam & iview which is quite excellent.

Definitely not TPG. We had no problems with them originally - Customer service was good, if you were patient and the connection was fine BUT NOW after a year the connection is shocking, it drops out all the time and I have to reset the modem constantly. Cheep but no good really.

Internode all the way for me. Expensive, yes, but they have provided me with almost everything I've needed in a broadband service when no other ISP could come through for a lower price - stability, great customer service (when needed) and awesome features (and as soon as I move to one of the new SOHO Reach plans, I'll have everything I've ever wanted - a static IP and unlimited uploads). The only thing I can complain about is speed, but since Telstra refuses to lend out high-speed equipment for my exchange to anybody, I know it's not their fault.

My votes on Internode. Fantastic customer service and I have to say probably the best offered of unmetered content. iview which is now the only telvision i watch if you can even call it watching tv anymore. as far as i know the countries only unmetered steam server, definately ftw! and some great game servers. their pricing is generally a tad higher but are still excellent and i'm extremely happy with all the recent updates to their plans.

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